On June 16th, 17th & 18th, the Stairbuilders and Manufacturers Association attended the conference and was represented by Ashley Goodin, our Code Development Representative, Lewis Fitts, past board member, and current board member John Wonderly. This was truly an international affair, with researchers presenting their research data from Japan, Denmark, Australia, the Czech Republic, and Germany, just to name a few. Most of the information presented was directly or indirectly related to stairs and stair safety.
John Wonderly stated, “There was an enormous amount of data presented that, quite honestly, my head is still spinning, but here are a few details. In the United States, there are over one million falls on stairs every year. Seventy percent of these falls result in minor injuries. The remaining 30% result in serious injury or death. As a result, most of the research presented concentrated on the causes of the accidents and how to reduce and possibly prevent them from occurring.”
Research was presented on stair tread surfaces, contrast markings, stair design, and stair usage. Interestingly, the design and composition of the soles on shoes were discussed in great detail as a method of preventing stair accidents. Also very informative was the data on the angle of first contact of the foot in reference to the tread surface. Very detailed research was presented by multiple scientists on the arc of rotation of the foot as it goes through the motion of contacting the tread through completion and the lifting of the foot from the tread. This data was compared to the same motions of the foot during a slip, trip, or fall while using a stair. John jokes, “although I am not a research scientist, I did finally figure out that is how the conference got its name.”
